People often have accounts and memberships with multiple institutions in connection with their personal and professional activities. For example, a person may have financial accounts (e.g., credit card, checking, savings, investment, etc.), rental accounts (e.g., movie, automobile, furniture, etc.), service accounts (e.g., airline, hotel, restaurant, etc.), and the like. The person may choose the institutions for any number of reasons, including convenience, cost, quality of product/service, reward programs, and the like.
When an individual wishes to open a new account or switch an existing account from one institution to another, the process involved is often complicated. For example, when a new account is opened with a financial institution (e.g., bank) or when an account is switched from one financial institution to another, the individual typically must provide several items of information pertaining to previously-opened financial accounts. This information is often not readily available and may even be difficult to obtain, sometimes requiring that the individual contact the previous financial institutions.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to be able to provide a way to eliminate or decrease some of the complications involved in opening a new account or switching an existing account from one institution to another. More specifically, it would be desirable to be able to provide a way to automatically present the individual with some or all of the information needed to open a new account or switch his/her existing account.